Yeah, I don’t really know either. I always hear the expression ‘SSCI’ thrown around as the gold standard for social science work. Administrators seem to love it, but where it comes from and how it gets compiled I don’t really understand. Given that we all seem to use this language and worry about impact factor all the time, I thought I would simply post the list of journals for IR ranked by impact factor (after the break).

I don’t think I ever actually saw this list before all laid out completely. In grad school, I just had a vague idea that I was supposed to send my stuff to the same journals whose articles I was reading in class. But given that I haven’t found this list posted on the internet anywhere, here it is. I don’t know if that means it is gated or something, or if my school has a subscription, or whatever. Anyway, I thought posting the whole IR list would be helpful for this site’s readership.

Note that a bunch of them are published in Asia, and 3 alone are about Korea (Korean Journal of Defense Analysis, Korean Observer, and NK Review) – so get to work!

But I have a few questions. First, why does Thomson-Reuters create this? Why don’t we do it? Does anyone actually know what they do that qualifies them for this ? And don’t say ‘consulting’ or ‘knowledge services’ or that sort of MBA-speak. The picture above includes some modernist, high-tech skyscraper, presumably to suggest that lots of brilliant, hi-tech theorists are in there crunching away big numbers (but the flower tells you they have a soft side too – ahh), but I don’t buy it. Are these guys former academics who know what we read? Who are they? Does anyone know? The T-R website tells you nothing beyond buzzwords like ‘the knowledge effect’ and ‘synergy.’ I am genuinely curious how T-R got this gig and why we listen to them. Why don’t we make our own list?

Next, I am not sure if the SSCI and the Journal Citation Reports from T-R are different or not or what. Click here to see the SSCI list; and here is the JCR link, which is probably gated, but ask your administration; they probably have access. There are 3038 journals in the whole SSCI list (!), 107 listed under political science, and 82 under IR. There is some overlap between the last two, but the PS list does not completely subsume the IR list, as I think most of us would think it should. For example, IS is listed only under IR, not political science, but ISQ is listed under both, even though I think most people would say IS is a better journal than ISQ. Also, there is no identifiable list for the other 3 subfields of political science. I find that very unhelpful. More generally, I would like to know how T-R chooses which journals are on the SSCI and which not. It doesn’t take much effort to see that they’re almost all published in English…

Next, I thought the SSCI was only peer-reviewed, but Foreign Affairs and the Washington Quarterly (which I understand to be solicited, not actually peer-reviewed – correct me if I am wrong) are listed on the IR list, and even Commentary and the Nation magazine are on the PS list. Wow – your neocon ideological ravings can actually count as scholarship. Obviously FA should be ranked for impact factor; it’s hugely influential. But does it belong on the SSCI? Note also that ISR is listed on the IR roster, as is its old incarnation, the Mershon ISR. Hasn’t that been gone now for more than a decade? Also when you access the impact factors (after the jump),T-R provides an IR list with its ‘Journal Citation Reports’ that has only 78 journals listed for IR, not 82. So the SSCI for IR (82) does not quite equal the JCR for IR (78). Is that just a clerical error? If so, does that mean the super-geniuses in the futuristic skyscraper are spending too much time looking out the windows at the flowers? I guess if you double-count M/ISR, you get 79, which is pretty close to 82, but given how definitive this list is supposed to be, it seems like there are problems and confusions.

Anyway, I don’t really know, so I just thought I’d throw it out there. Check the IR rankings on the next page.

2010 is the most recent year T-R provides a ranking, so I used that, plus the rolling 5-year impact factor. The ranking on the left follows the 5 year impact factor, not the 2010 one.

A few things leap out to me:

1. How did International Studies Perspectives rocket up so high in less than 15 years, higher than EJIR, RIPE, and Foreign Affairs? Wow. I guess I should read it more.

2. What is Marine Policy (no. 11) and how did it get so very high also?

3. Security Studies at 27 doesn’t sound right to me. We read that all the time in grad school.

4. A lot of the newest ones, at the bottom without a 5-year ranking, come from Asia. That isn’t surprising, as Asian countries are throwing more and more money at universities. That’s probably healthy in terms of field-range, to move beyond just Western-published ones.

5. Why haven’t I ever even heard of something like half of these journals? I guess we really are a hermeneutic circle – reading just the same journals again and again – APSR, IO, IS, ISQ, EJIR. That’s pretty scholastic when this IR SSCI list shows a rather interesting diversity I never have time to read. A shame actually…

Rank                             Title                    2010 Impact Factor           5-Year Impact Factor

1 1111	INT ORGAN	3.551	5.059
2222	INT SECURITY	3.444	4.214
3333	WORLD POLIT	2.889	3.903
4444	J CONFLICT RESOLUT	1.883	3.165
5555	INT STUD QUART	1.523	2.427
6666	INT STUD PERSPECT	0.719	2.344
7777	EUR J INT RELAT	1.426	2.337
8888	FOREIGN AFF	2.557	2.263
9999	COMMON MKT LAW REV	2.194	2.071
10110	J PEACE RES	1.476	2.036
11111	MAR POLICY	2.053	1.961
12112	INT J TRANSIT JUST	1.756	1.923
13113	INT RELAT	0.473	1.743
14114	JCMS-J COMMON MARK S	1.274	1.643
15115	INT STUD REV	0.803	1.621
16116	REV INT POLIT ECON	0.861	1.519
17117	SECUR DIALOGUE	1.6	1.51
18118	INT AFF	1.198	1.496
19119	CONFLICT MANAG PEACE	0.682	1.423
19119	EUR J INT LAW	1.5	1.423
21221	WORLD ECON	0.878	1.382
22222	STUD COMP INT DEV	0.605	1.352
23223	BIOSECUR BIOTERROR	1.26	1.265
24224	REV WORLD ECON	0.966	1.201
25225	REV INT STUD	0.98	1.177
26226	MILLENNIUM-J INT ST	0.727	1.084
27227	SECUR STUD	0.766	1.065
28228	FOREIGN POLICY ANAL	0.7	1.032
29229	TERROR POLIT VIOLENC	0.814	0.946
30330	AM J INT LAW	0.865	0.858
31331	GLOBAL GOV	0.8	0.848
32332	PAC REV	0.683	0.791
33333	ALTERNATIVES	0.357	0.776
34334	LAT AM POLIT SOC	0.34	0.731
35335	STANFORD J INT LAW	0.6	0.727
36336	WASH QUART	0.65	0.721
37337	CORNELL INT LAW J	0.541	0.693
38338	COLUMBIA J TRANS LAW	0.741	0.671
39339	J JPN INT ECON	0.444	0.662
40440	COMMUNIS POST-COMMUN	0.211	0.64
41441	B ATOM SCI	1.057	0.632
42442	INT INTERACT	0.258	0.622
43443	SURVIVAL	0.472	0.615
44444	EMERG MARK FINANC TR	0.444	0.558
45	INT J CONFL VIOLENCE	0.586	0.524
46	OCEAN DEV INT LAW	0.282	0.518
47	AUST J INT AFF	0.508	0.517
48	J STRATEGIC STUD	0.344	0.491
49	SPACE POLICY	0.308	0.381
50	MIDDLE EAST POLICY	0.219	0.309
51	ISSUES STUD	0.13	0.284
52	WAR HIST	0.265	0.262
53	KOREAN J DEF ANAL	0.304	0.261
54	CURR HIST	0.139	0.19
55	WORLD POLICY J	0.144	0.164
56	J MARIT LAW COMMER	0.244	0.15
57	INT POLITIK	0.017	0.042
58	INT POLIT-OSLO	0.013	0.024
59	ASIA EUR J	0.237
59	ASIAN J WTO INT HEAL	0.333
59	ASIAN PERSPECT-SEOUL	0.326
59	BRIT J POLIT INT REL	1.025
59	CAMB REV INT AFF	0.18
59	CHIN J INT LAW	0.206
59	COOP CONFL	0.868
59	INT POLITICS	0.564
59	INT RELAT ASIA-PAC	0.676
59	J HUM RIGHTS	0.34
59	J INT RELAT DEV	0.429
59	J WORLD TRADE	0.398
59	KOREA OBS	0.292
59	N KOREAN REV	0.75
59	PAC FOCUS	0.459
59	REV DERECHO COMUNITA	0.098
59	REV INT ORGAN	0.971
59	STUD CONFL TERROR	0.588
59	ULUSLAR ILISKILER	0.224
59	WORLD TRADE REV	1.231